Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Binders Can Organize Your Life Series! ~ Part 1

A couple of weeks ago I found out I won 1st Place in the Organizing Junkie's 28 Day Organizing Challenge for making over our hall coat closet to a new Command Center.Of course I was so excited because I don't win anything. So let me take a minute to toot my own horn. Toot, Toot!

Okay. Now that that is over, let me get on with this post. As a result of my win, I had dozens of comments and questions on my binder system which has saved my life! Well, not really but you know what I mean, right? So in an effort to help all the women out there (and some men) have a little peace in their lives, I am going to share with you what my Binder System is all about. Since there are so many, I will do it in a 5 Part Series over the next 5 Wednesdays.

This is one of two of my Manual & Warranties Binders. Why do I have 2? Well because it tends to get a little heavy if you put them all in one binder. I use HEAVY DUTY 2 inch binders. I didn't spend the money on view binders since we rarely use the manuals but you know you need to keep them. As you can see they are nothing special. I just put a P-Touch label along the spine as you can see in the picture above.

Here's the side view showing you it can get pretty thick. If it was a bigger binder, it becomes hard to handle. Trust me on this, I know from experience . . . well, it just makes sense, right.

So here is the guts of the binder. I put HEAVY DUTY sheet protectors in there and fill them up. It is so much easier to flip through a binder when you are looking for a manual or warranty instead of rummaging through a box or file folder. Another great tip is to put your receipt with the appliance right with the manual. I just put them inside the front cover.

Next up is my Holiday Ideas binder. As I've said in a previous post, I'm a ripper. I like to rip ideas out of magazines, newspaper or print ideas off of the computer. Now, what do you do with them once you've done the above. Do they go in a file folder or a box never to be seen again? That is exactly what used to happen to mine . . . until I created my Binder System. As you can see, I used a front view binder (I got them all on Target's clearance of the back to school stuff for under a $1) and made them pretty with a cover and spine inserts. I pulled these images off of Google Images but if you want me to email you mine, just send me an email asking for them and I'll get any or all of them out to you. They are all word documents.

Anything that relates to the holiday goes in that section . . . such as ideas I print off the Internet like how to make cute votives out of small jars.

Here is an example of something I "copied & pasted" from a website onto a word document and printed because sometimes when you print something from online, you get all the advertisements and junk. Isn't this Halloween costume cute? I made it for Allison several years ago but I've kept it because hopefully one day I'll have grandchildren!

In this example, I printed something off but there was all this dead space at the bottom so I just pasted with a glue stick something I cut out of a magazine.

Now in the spotlight is my Decorating Ideas Binder. There are a million and one ideas out there about decorating that I love so I've created this place to have all of my favorites in one spot.

My index tabs are: Foyer, Kitchen, Dining Room, Living Room, Bedroom, Kids, Bathroom, Craft Room (I don't have one now but maybe someday. . . Allison will be going to college one day!), Garage/Storage and Outdoors.

Same idea as before . . . I cut out, paste down and then I add what I like about the pic or my idea on how I would change it.

The last binder I'm going to share with you today is "My Recipes" binder. It's nothing fancy but it serves it's purpose. I would like to make a pretty page for each recipe but I'm a realist. I have SO many recipes that I know a pretty page for each is not going to happen. I also don't use sheet protectors because my kitchen is so small, there is no room to lay the binder out in there. When I use one of the recipes, I use a magnetic clip on the refrigerator to hold the individual recipe page. In the future when I get a bigger kitchen, I'll transfer them to page protectors and get one of those pretty cookbook holders to hold my binder.

I use the same idea in this binder as the others. I three hole punch recipes that I've printed from the Internet. The recipe below is in my Mom's handwriting . . . I love that I'll have this forever!

This particular recipe is one of mine from my cooking blog, From The Heart of My Kitchen. I open a word document and put the picture and recipe on it and then print. I also save all of these recipes in a file on the computer so I can put together a binder of all my recipes for Allison. I'll give it to her when she moves into her first place.

I hope you enjoyed Part 1 in the Binders Can Organize Your Life Series and be sure to come back next Wednesday for Part 2.

So far I have two recipe binders (one holds only well-established favorites) and a household binder with some general things like phone numbers and take-out menus. I love the idea of a holiday binder for all holidays! It's a lot better than having scraps of paper all over the place, LOL!

great ideas! i use lots of binders too. I have 2 for recipes (one for meals and one for baking) one for take-out menus, and 3 for all the articles I've saved from Martha Stewart. And I keep adding more - this week i got one for all my cricut cutouts.

You might also like avery photo sleeves, they are standard size but have 4 small pockets - great for receipts, recipe cards, etc.

This is going to finally give me the peace of mind I need! I have a bin FULL of papers that I just can't seem to PUT AWAY and now I know why - there was no where to put them away! It is full of ideas from magazines, receipes, etc......now I can create binders and put it all away...I went out today and bought my binders....I'm soo excited I can't wait to start! Thank you!!!

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About Me

Welcome! I'm glad you stopped by for a visit. This blog is about My Life as seen through my eyes. It's where I document and share my day to day life. I'm a working Mom to one beautiful daughter named Allison. She is my dream come true and my world. Even though my life can get crazy and sometimes it's more than I think I can handle, I try to take it one day at a time enjoying it as I go.

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I love decorating, scrapbooking, gardening, cooking, baking, organizing, planning parties, crafting and just being creative. Flea markets, yard sales, Goodwill and Salvation Army stores are some of my favorite hangouts and I love to redo or repurpose my finds.

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